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Nora kept her head down, staying silent. But Lindsay said, “No way. I heard the Lawrence family’s new heiress is their golden girl now. They even kicked out their adopted daughter for her. If we say Tiffany made Nora do this, the Lawrences will never let Nora off the hook, and they’lle after our whole family too.”
Nora nodded. “Yeah, Mom’s right. The Lawrence family already kicked Alicia out. Tiffany’s the favorite now. And Tiffany warned me not to drag her into this. If I do, she’ll make sure I pay for it, and our whole family will suffer too.
“She said if I take the me for her, she’ll have my back. Yesterday, Tiffany said she’d handled everything, and the school already deleted all the posts.
“But Alicia just wouldn’t let it go. She kept blowing things up. Honestly, she didn’t even get hurt. I have no idea why she’s so hell–bent on ruining me.”
Lindsay paused, then said, “This whole mess started with Alicia. Nora, your dad and I will go with you and ask for her forgiveness. If she agrees to let it go, the school should follow suit, and you’ll be free from all this.”
Nora’s eyes grew red with tears. “Mom, Dad, I’m really sorry. This is all my fault–I ended up dragging you both into my trouble,” she whispered, feeling miserable and guilty.
“Okay, enough talking for now. Let’s head to the school and talk to Alicia,” Lindsay said firmly.
Nora quickly helped Lindsay up, but couldn’t summon the courage to go to school. Biting her lip, she said, “Mom, if I show up at school now, those students and their parents will eat me alive. I’m really scared. How about we just go to Alicia’s ce instead?”
‘Alicia lives at Linen Bay Residences, the fanciest neighborhood in Riverdale, Lindsay thought. ‘Everyone there is either rolling in cash or has major connections. If we go there and kneel before Alicia, she’ll definitely care about her prestige and probably agree to whatever we ask.
She thought for a moment, then nodded. “Alright, let’s wait until this afternoon. What time do you get out of ss<b>?</b><b>” </b>
“Let’s just go there as soon as possible. I have no idea what Alicia’s schedule is or if she even has sses this afternoon,” Nora replied.
Lindsay sighed. “Alright, we’ll head out right away. Go grab something to eat so we can take it with us.”
The Judds got up early and staked out the entrance of Linen Bay Residences, waiting around as if on a mission.
They kept sneaking nces at the gate, which made the security guards super suspicious—those guys I watched them like they were professional thieves, convinced the family was just waiting to cause trouble.
Alicia had sses back–to–back the entire day and didn’t even get a chance to head home until 4:30 PM.
By the time she rode the subway back to Linen Bay Residences, it was already five o’clock.
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On top of that, she still needed to send out an international parcel and finish coloring three paintings–her schedule was seriously packed.
Fortunately, she’d remembered to bring the cloth with her, so she went straight to the nearest international. express firm by Linen Bay Residences. By the time she’d finally sent off the package, it was almost six, and only then did she start thinking about heading home to make dinner.
But just as Alicia got to the front gate of Linen Bay Residences, three people suddenly jumped out, blocking her way.
Alicia was startled–she instinctively stepped back, narrowing her eyes at the trio.
After a second, she realized it was Nora, and with her were two adults who looked a lot like her–definitely her
parents.
“Alicia,” Nora pleaded, her voice weak and desperate. “Could you please take down those posts from the school forum?”
Alicia raised an eyebrow, giving Nora and her parents a cool smile. “So you all waited out here just to beg me to erase those posts?”
“Yes,” Nora nodded hastily, voice thin with nerves. “If you delete them and tell the school you’re not pressing charges, I swear… I won’t ever do anything like this again.”
“Oh, so you really thought you could pull this off and get away with it, no consequences at all?” Alicia sneered, her tone frosty.
Nora pressed her lips together, voice shaky. “Isn’t everyone already roasting me? That’s punishment enough, right? Besides, you know this wasn’t even my idea. It was—”
She faltered, the rest of her words stuck in her throat.
‘Seriously? She stopped before spilling the truth, Alicia thought, a bit annoyed. ‘I was ready to catch it all on record.‘
“Come on, you know I’m just the messenger here. It wasn’t me who started all this. Can’t you just let it go for once? I promise–I won’t ever do stuff like this again, okay?” Nora begged.
“Absolutely not,” Alicia said coldly, shaking her head. “You mess up, you face the consequences.”
With that, she tried to step around Nora and head for the iris scanner at the gate. Suddenly, someone grabbed her hard–she nearly stumbled, catching herself against the wall. Before she could say a word, Lindsay dropped to her knees right in front of her.
Lindsay broke down, bawling with tears and snot everywhere. “Alicia, please! I’m begging you! Spare Nora, I beg you–just let my daughter go!”
Lindsay’s dramatic kneel grabbed everyone’s attention right away–passersby stopped in their tracks to watch, their expressions a mix of shock and gossip. Even Alicia could feel the weight of all those eyes on her.
Most residents here drove straight into the underground garage, but with a sports park just around the
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corner, plenty of folks came by after work to jog or take a stroll. So the entrance was buzzing with peopleing and going.
Spotting the mounting attention from onlookers, Lindsay decided to use the public pressure to push Alicia into giving in.
She threw herself even harder into her performance, kneeling and literally kowtowing on the ground. “We know us poor people can never afford to offend the rich like you! From now on, we’ll avoid crossing your path, I promise. I’m begging you, just this once–please spare my daughter!”
Lindsay’s half–cried, half–mumbled begging was <b>so </b>twisted and ambiguous that the crowd instantly started specting–everyone assumed Alicia was just some rich brat out here unting her status and bullying some poor girl for fun.
No one bothered to speak up, but Alicia could feel the sneers in their eyes–judging, scornful, like she was the viin in some cheap drama.
People in these fancy neighborhoods usually kept themselves set well above others; they’d never even mix with the less wealthy, let alone bother to bully them—most barely acknowledged the existence of the poor.
So, hearing Lindsay paint Alicia as a rich kid picking on the poor, people suddenly saw Alicia as just as pitifully petty as those she supposedly looked down on.
Most of the younger crowd couldn’t care less about drama—they just nced over and kept walking. But the older folks were all about the spectacle, and not just watching–they loved to butt in and stir things up.
One olddy stepped forward, waving her finger at Alicia. “Young girl, how can you use your family’s money to bully those who don’t have it? Wasn’t everyone’s family poor a few generations ago? Is that how you act?”
“Seriously, cut people some ck, won’t you? Does your family even know you’re out here pulling this kind of stunt?” she went on.
Alicia nced at the gaggle of nosy grannies and grandpas, sneering inwardly. ‘Do any of these people even know what actually went down? Yet they’re so quick to point fingers at me–ugh, spare me.’
Lindsay’s voice grew shakier the more she spoke, tears practically falling. “Miss Lawrence, we’re just regr workers. The money Nora’s dad and I make in a whole year probably isn’t even close to what your family spends in a single day.
“But we’re honest people–not thieves, not schemers. We just want our daughter to be better than us, so we scraped everything we could to send her to Premier Academy, hoping she could learn some real skills. <fn72ce> ???? ????s? ???????s ?? </fn72ce>
“That’s all we ever wanted, nothing shady, nothing else. Please, Miss Lawrence, I’m begging you–don’t let her get expelled.”